- Texas Tech photo
After a year of wins and high finishes in college and amateur majors,
Ludvig Aberg is the AmateurGolf.com Men's Player of the Year.
The AmateurGolf.com Men's Player of the Year is awarded based on a point system earned through performance in major amateur events throughout the course of the year. The year, the 22-year-old Aberg took control of the points race early on and built a lead that none of his chasers was able to overcome.
AmateurGolf.com
Players of the Year
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Coming into the year, the college golf landscape was in turmoil, as the COVID-19 pandemic obliterated the 2020 fall schedule. Many colleges, including Aberg's Texas Tech, loaded up the spring schedule with a larger-than-normal number of tournaments in a sprint to the NCAA Championship.
But Aberg was ready, having gained experience the previous summer in his native Sweden competing in the Nordic Golf League, a professional tour that feeds into the Challenge Tour in Europe. Aberg won two Nordic Golf League events and represented the
winning International team in the Arnold Palmer Cup in December, so he came into 2021 well prepared.
Aberg
cashed in at the Jones Cup at Sea Island, grinding out a one-shot win over a trio of Walker Cuppers (
Cole Hammer,
Davis Thompson and
Alex Fitzpatrick) by rolling in a 7-foot birdie putt on the final hole.
The following week, Aberg started his college season in the California desert with a win at the Prestige at PGA West. It would be the first of a string of high finishes for the Texas Tech sophomore that would run all the way through the NCAA Championship.
At the Cabo Collegiate, moved from Mexico to San Antonio due to COVID, Aberg finished fifth. He then finished third at the George Hannon Intercollegiate in Austin, and later was sixth at the Aggie Invitational in College Station.
At the ASU/Thunderbird Invitational in Phoenix, Aberg shot three straight rounds of 67 to earn his second win of the season.
Then came a postseason run that saw him finish fourth in the Big 12 Championship, fourth in the Albuquerque NCAA Regional, and eighth in the NCAA Championship.
In nine college tournaments, Aberg had eight top-8 finishes, beating nearly 95% of his opponents. The awards followed: PING All-America, All-Big 12 First Team, All-Nicklaus Team,
Haskins Award Final Watch List.
Back in Europe for the summer, he made the cut in the European Tour's Scandinavian Mixed and represented Sweden in the European Amateur Team Championship. In Europe's biggest championship, the European Amateur in France, Aberg took the lead after shooting a second-round 10-under 61, but was caught in the final round by Christoffer Bring of Denmark and ultimately finished second.
The fall college season was relatively quiet for Aberg; in three events his best finish was a tie for ninth at the Blessings Intercollegiate. He did compete in two PGA Tour events, making the cut in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship and missing the cut at the RSM Classic at Sea Island, Ga., thus closing out his season eight miles away from where he started it all with his win at the Jones Cup in early February.
Final POY Points Standings, 2021
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The runner-up in the Player-of-the-Year points race was
Keita Nakajima of Japan, who won the Asia-Pacific Amateur, the Japan Amateur and a tournament on the Japan Golf Tour. The U.S. Amateur champion
James Piot was third, and his U.S. Am finals opponent
Austin Greaser was fourth.
Bo Jin rounded out the top five.
Last year's Player of the Year,
Casey Jarvis of South Africa, was 68th in the points standings in 2021.
Related: The 2020 AGC Men's Player of the Year: Casey Jarvis
Complete 2021 Points List (3126 players) |
Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings (two-year aggregate)